Serendib Scops Owl. Photo: Uditha Hettidge.

Deepal Warakagoda, the leader of our tours to Sri Lanka, has done it again. Already well known for his discovery of the Serendib Scops Owl, Deepal recently found a population of Marshall’s Ioras breeding on the “tear of India,” as the magical Island of Sri Lanka is sometimes known.

Marshall's Iora. Wikimedia Commons: Arpit Deomurari.

The colorful Marshall’s Iora had been thought to be restricted to the Indian mainland, making Deepal’s discover a significant one. And we have a good chance of seeing this newest addition to the Sri Lankan avifauna on our next tour, in the area of Tissa.

From Paul Lehman, writing from Omaha at the conclusion of another very successful Nebraska tour:

Greetings. Currently at the Omaha airport, heading home. My Platte River
tour recorded three species of cranes. After we missed the Common Crane
in western Nebraska all day Sunday, it was re-found yesterday, so
we dashed back westward and had fine looks (new for me in North
America). On Monday we had a Whooping Crane near our hotel outside Grand
Island (my second in Nebraska). And of course we saw some 500,000+ Sandhill
Cranes.  Sharp-tailed Grouse displaying to Greater Prairie-Chickens at a
prairie-chicken lek. The weather changed hourly from very nice to truly awful.

Will Russell and David Sibley have returned from Thailand, where they were studying Spoon-billed Sandpipers at the traditional site at Pak Thale in the northern Gulf of Thailand.  They saw multiple birds every day, with a maximum of six.

Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Thailand. Photo: Jon Dunn.

Will writes: “From the point where six Spoon-bills were visible at once, by spinning slowly around one could also see about 300 Eurasian Curlews, one Far Eastern curlew, 50 Black-tailed Godwits, 10 Bar-tailed Godwits, six Ruffs, 250 Great Knots, 15 Red Knots, six Nordmann’s Greenshanks, 20 Common Greenshanks, 30 Spotted Redshanks, 400 Marsh Sandpipers, 300 Curlew Sandpipers, six Dunlin, 400 Little Stints, 20 Long-toed Stints, 15 Broad-billed Sandpipers, five Common Sandpipers, 30 Pacific Golden-Plovers, 10 Black-bellied Plovers, 100 Kentish Plovers, 150 Greater Sand-Plovers, 80 Lesser Sand-Plovers, and one Malaysian Plover–all from that single point.”

David and Will also encountered Jon Dunn and the WINGS Coast to Highlands group.  “Lucky Jon,” they’d taken to calling him: the first bird Jon  looked at on getting out of the the van was a Spoon-billed Sandpiper!

Many thanks to Pete Davidson for allowing us to post his photos of the British Columbia Oriental Turtle-Dove.

Oriental Turtle-Dove, Delta, BC. Photo: Pete Davidson.

The bird was discovered Monday at Alaksen NWA, next door to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary.

Photo: Pete Davidson.

The past couple of days have produced no further sightings, but as Vancouver birders have noted, there are lots of dove flocks to look through up there.

An Oriental Turtle-Dove was photographed ninety minutes ago at Alaksen  NWA, British Columbia.

If the usual questions of provenance can be settled, this will be a third record for Canada and one of less than a dozen accepted reports for all of North America.

Bruce Mactavish reports a Redwing in Newfoundland, first found Tuesday and still present through at least Wednesday.

Redwing on the 2007 WINGS tour to Newfoundland. Photo: Bruce Mactavish.

There is a Bare-throated Tiger-Heron in Hildago County, Texas, discovered and photographed today.

This isn’t totally unexpected, but still a terrifically exciting way to end the birding year!

Oaxaca is famed the world ’round for its richly historic culture and for some of the best birding in Mexico. This year’s Oaxaca Birding Marathon, held over the last of October and the first of November, provided eloquent testimony to the area’s birding potential, with 406 species (!) recorded over two and a half days by 23 participants led by our friends Eric Antonio, Roque Antonio, Edgar del Valle, and Manuel Grosselet.

Among the birds tallied were 39 endemic and 28 nearly endemic species.

Lesser Ground-Cuckoo. Photo: Manuel Grosselet.

The weekend’s list was a riotous jumble of great birds: Boucard’s Wren, Dwarf Jay, Dwarf Vireo, Aztec Thrush, Chesnut-sided Shrike -Vireo, Townsend’s Shearwater, Rosita’s Bunting, Red-breasted Chat, Sparkling-tailed Hummingbird, and on and on.

Rosita's Bunting. Photo: Manuel Grosselet.

Manuel and his colleagues are already planning their next marathon. And here at WINGS we’re looking forward ourselves to our next visit to Oaxaca and Chiapas with Steve Howell and Rich Hoyer in March.

Stuart Elsom writes:

I’ve just returned from seeing Britain’s first EASTERN CROWNED WARBLER in County Durham, northeast England. There was a huge twitch, with about 500 birders present at dawn for this superb bird.

Britain's First Eastern Crowned Warbler. © Dougie Holden.

The discovery of this bird is a very interesting story. A photographer was visiting a site where Long-eared and Short-eared Owls often come in off the sea. He was lucky enough to have an owl arrive very near where he was standing, but was uncertain whether the bird was a Long-eared or a Short-eared.

The photographer posted his owl photos and invited comment from local birders–and on the same page was a photo of the “Yellow-browed” Warbler he’d photographed nearby earlier that day.

Visitors to the website quickly lost interest in the owl images when they came to the conclusion that the warbler was in fact an EASTERN CROWNED, the first for Britain.

Happily, the bird was still present today.

The English east coast is proving to be a real magnet for “Sibes” right now, with many Radde’s, Pallas’s, and Dusky Warblers. There have also been a few Red-flanked Blue-tails, Pechora Pipits, an Eye-browed Thrush, a Brown Shrike, and from North America, two Veeries.

- Stuart

We were happy to welcome Brian Finch to Tucson this past weekend, where he was able to do a little birding in habitats  sometimes surprisingly similar to his usual haunts in Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Brian at Catalina State Park. Photo: Rick Wright.

Catalina State Park produced Woodhouse’s (Western Scrub-) Jay and noisy Crissal Thrashers; best of all were two Steller’s Jays, part of what is shaping up to be a nice lowland invasion here in southeast Arizona.

Steller's Jay in mesquite at Catalina State Park. Photo: Rick Wright.

Brian also visited the Patagonia area with Gavin Bieber and Jake Mohlmann; that day’s considerable highlights included Baird’s Sparrow and a vagrant Palm Warbler.

Safe travels home, Brian, and see you next time!